Chapter Four
"Well you told me not to bring a gun and look what has happened" Lyons said. They had been shown into a large room where they had been told to wait. Commander Lyons was sitting on one of the plastic like arm chair, The Doctor was sprawled out on his back on the floor.
"Remember Commander" The Doctor said "if you had pulled that gun, both of us would have been dead before we had walked ten feet away from the Tardis. Look the officer in charge is going to see us so all we have to do is sit and hang on."
Just then the silver sliding doors slip open and three men in Skybase uniform walked into the light. He was tall and dark skinned with bright, piercing eyes like those of a hawk. His hair was cut short and gave him the appearance of trained solder. "Greetings" he said his voice was commanding but was polite for this type occasion. "Are you the ones who are Commander Lyons and the one they call 'The Doctor'?" he asked
"I'm The Doctor" The Doctor said getting to his feet, "And that is Commander Lyons! And who might you be?"
"I'm Skymaster 3174." The newcomer said. The Skymaster was dressed in a similar uniform to the others but he had over eleven medals on the front of his jacket. "I fear that we may owe you an explanation. Do you know where you are?"
"Skybase XII" Commander Lyons said, "But what is this place and where do you come from?"
The Skymaster smiled "surely you must know what The Skybases are" he said "Have you ever heard of the planet 'Earth'?"
"Know it?" replied Lyons "we are from Earth."
The Skymaster narrowed his eyes "If you are from Earth, then you must now that, The Earth Government built the Skybases. As a new form of atmospheric defence."
"I'm afraid I must protest" Lyons said "I'm regularly kept up to date with latest technology which is being used in Whitehall. And these 'Skybases' seem like some work of fiction."
"Maybe not?" The Doctor interrupted "Tell me what year is it. Skymaster?"
The question surprised The Skymaster. "Last entry in our date log said that the year was 7188."
The Doctor nodded "I don't wish to alarm you, in reality you are in the 2014. So the question is what is a futuristic space defence system from the 72nd Century doing above the Earth in the 21st Century?"
"May I put my side of events to you?" explained The Skymaster. "Mainly what The Skybase is used for? And what would have happened to you." There was a small chair in the corner of the room, this is what the Skymaster sat on and after he had dismissed his escort and began to speak. "In 72nd Century the Earth has become a drab, dismal, grey, urban landscape. Natural resources were in short supply; we decided to re-create original rural settings. Abandoned planets and asteroids we spread with nitrogen and oxygen producing chemicals, this in turn produced plant life and in turn species were introduced which were saved from extinction."
"Very commendable" The Doctor said "So what were the Skybases built for?"
"This is Skybase XII. There were fifteen Skybases built altogether they main design was too protect these lush new worlds from hostile alien invaders. For us we were guarding the planet codenamed 'Prehistoric recurrence' a large planet which was designed to recreate the Mesozoic era."
"Sort of a modern day 'Jurassic Park'" The Doctor gave a nod of understanding "Human technology has come along in the 72nd Century. But how did you manage to end up in the skies above 21st Century Earth?"
"We're not sure in fact the transaction was so smooth that we didn't realise that we had changed time zones. We picked up a tracer of a ship in distress."
"That'll be my ship" The Doctor said "The Tardis has a built in distress beacon if any of its internal circuitry is badly disrupted. And due to an intense battle with a gravitational radiator the motivational circuits have been burned out."
"Naturally we thought you were a hostile alien invasion party and brought your ship on board. If you had been alien invaders then you would have been arrested and taken back to Earth. As it appears we have made a mistake we need to get to the 72nd Century."
"I wonder" The Doctor said slowly "Commander may I have a quick word with you?"
He dragged Lyons over to one corner "What if you worked together." The Doctor said "Skybase XII and G.I.N. together."
"I can't" said Commander "The Minister would never allow it"
"It could be of a valuable asset" The Doctor added "You want to investigate Harvey McKenzie and Skylight Electronics. Well this would be perfect if I run into any trouble, and with the Tardis out of action it may prove not only useful but perhaps vital."
"Well the first part of the assignment Doctor was that you were to visit McKenzie at his home in Kensington." Lyons insisted, The Doctor had an idea "Skymaster do you have a technology department?"
"Yes we do. They're known as T-Branch, why what you want?" The Skymaster asked
"If the Skybase can pick up a blue police box, then perhaps a small version could transport a person with ease. I could do it if given the correct materials" The Doctor said
Half an hour later. The Doctor picked up a large round disk about the same size as a dinner plate, this is placed on the floor and held a large black box which he attached to the disc. Then he did the same with another disc and black box. "May I have my sonic screwdriver back?" he asked and was given it, Commander Lyons who was standing nearby was staring in disbelief.
"What are you doing?" he asked
"Creating a small teleport between G.I.N. HQ and the Skybase. Skymaster" he said "Once we've established contact that panel will glow, but you can only bridge the gap if you press the green button in type in the code '6698'. Ok!" The Skymaster nodded "Could you please use the Skybase's tracer beam to return the Tardis to Earth, there we'll establish contact and they may prove useful."
The Skymaster nodded again "Sounds useful, however I'll be sending my second Skylieutenant Harker to accompany you. Once at you HQ he will be the first to test it, should anything happen to him we'll know that you are either the friendly people you appear to be or hostile aliens and we'll re-take that machine."
"I understand fully" The Doctor said and taking the key from his waistcoat pocket he unlocked the door, "In you go" he said the Skylieutenant entered followed by Commander Lyons. Finally The Doctor leant out "Don't worry" he said "I'll look after him" and so saying he closed the doors and the tracer beam activated to all those who were watching from the outside it looked like the Tardis had disappeared, but in reality it was being taken away from the Skybase.
"It's, it's Bigger on the inside." Gasped Harker
"As strange as it sounds" The Doctor said to Commander Lyons "I'll never get tired of people saying that. Right" he added addressing Harker "Now when we land all there will be on the outside of that door will be nothing more than just a bunch of unarmed scientific technicians and many of them are ladies, now as a serving officer, you will never turn you weapon on an unarmed lady"
After a moment Harker nodded "Ok, I'll only use my laser pistol as a last resort" The Doctor smiled and open the doors again.